Following losses Monday to Juan Martin del Potro and Tuesday night in doubles at the Rio Olympic games, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic passed up a chance to play in the just-released mixed doubles draw and reportedly won’t even play in Cincinnati next week.

29 Comments for Novak Djokovic Is Out Of The Olympics And Reportedly Also Out Of Cincinnati

jane Says:

since tom didn’t mention it, i’ll add that novak didn’t simply “pass” on playing mixed doubles, nor will he be “taking some time off” for no reason; he made these decisions because he has an arm injury he’s been carrying for a while. (zimonjic and becker both mentioned it at rio.)

yes, slow BBB, and with a very high bounce. (i think it was bellucci who said they’re quite sticky/sand-papery too. )

agree it is a good decision. although not much play pre-USO, he needs to give the arm a rest. he chose to play canada to prep for olympics, and maybe it was good, but in the end, it’s all too much. olympics cram the calendar. something had to give for all of them.

Disappointed he won’t do Cincinnati, but though he hasn’t wanted to make it a big deal, he has been injured, so skipping Cincy is a needed thing. He wasn’t going to miss the Olympics he had been waiting 4 years for, plus he had commitments to Zimonjic and Team Serbia he wasn’t going to duck unless absolutely disabled. Probably had mentally convinced himself that he would have a good shot at a medal even injured, such was his game lately.
Then he got the last player he wanted to face of those ranked under 32.
New reality. Time for rest and therapy, see if he is OK for the USO or not.
Hopefully he puts everything on the table as worth being looked at to tweak and adjust, besides the injury. Perhaps even the vegan diet he is on, which is controversial in high performance athletes subject to muscle wear and tear.

cf – Why is a vegan diet controversial for athletes in particular? And is it more controversial than a vegetarian diet?

Djokovic looks like he’s lost too much weight, so if the vegan diet is responsible for that, then I can see the point. But if he was already pescatarian, then giving up fish and dairy doesn’t seem like it would make much of a difference. But I’d be interested if there’s a reason people believe it’s not good for high performance athletes.

Not surprised Jane. Since he started jerking his arm to release what appeared to be shoulder tension, he has never been
as fit as he should be. He probably played Toronto because he thought he could get rid of the stiffness or whatever it was/is.

BBB – the controversy on athlete, warrior diets is a constant. Since ancient times. The debate on vegan diets is fairly strong. Concerns are b-12, B6 deficiency, reduced strength, lowered energy reserves and stamina, and maybe most important longer body repair times without animal protein. Various vegans and vegetarians have argued to the contrary and said many famous veggie and grains and fruits and roots folk -are great athletes.
Some of the names brought forth, are athletes who went that way after their competitive playing days were over.
And there have been “active competitor” athletes who went into decline after going vegan.

Its not just “animal” protein, its “protein”
Yes the Vegan diet needs to be aware of making sure they have enough b12 and protein, but those are very doable through the plant based diet. Read and learn, don’t be uneducated. The health benefits for out weigh the cons, if any.

Fans debating whether Djoko’s vegan diet is suitable or not for a top athlete? Hilarious!
Do you guys really think he is such an idiot that he would jeopardize his career by switching to a vegan diet without consulting a top nutritionist? He is a multimillionaire and can afford the best advice.

No, Keezer, the amino acid profile and presence of vitamins and trace minerals is more complete in animal protein than plant protein.
This problem can be addressed by a careful vegan diet, but any “slip up” and each person has a slightly different metabolism so some need more L-Tryptophan than others do, for example. And breaking down plant proteins to component amino acids takes long than with animal tissue, delaying body muscle & joint repair. Vegetarianism, in competitive athletes is also associated with loss of lean muscle mass, and an increased rate of muscle wastage with aging.

Yes, there are top athletes who have done well on meatless, dairyless, fishless diets….but other crash and burns like Carl Lewis after he went 100% Vegan. His competitive play became erratic. Some races he would win or place in Final 3. Next track event, he was out in the 1st heat. No more Mr. Consistency. Then he began winning less and less. ..

An Italian approach….Purely anecdotal, I have veggie/vegan friends who are perpetually hungry and seem to scoff chocolate/sugary snacks all the time. Sure, we all need far less animal protein than we Westerners eat, but a little goes a long way.

see also this beautiful piece on the wimbledon 2015 final. and you might wanna note that the said writer was, admittedly, once a fed fan, but during one of their many blistering matches, he found himself cheering for nole, instead, and he’s never looked back. sometimes these things happen organically – as we tennis / sports fans know. cheers.

Thanks very much for those links, particulary first one, he nailed it, not like certain “knowledgable” fan who while gloating over Nole’s defeat said that Nole “produced nada” or to quote him:

“Delpo is not Slam material nowadays, look at his post wrist record.
Quit making excuses, the worlds number 1 had his best shot at a medal in his prime, produced nada.”

Every single person who watched the match said that Delpo played like world #1, blinder, like s GS winer, he just didn’t miss no matter what Nole tried, but “knowledgeable poster that plays tennis” is blinded with jealousy and hate, not so much towards Nole as towards his fans, most of them.

So if DFW writes of Federer as a religious experience, he is a nutcase but if Joe Posnanski claims Djoko is invincible after he defeats a way-past-his-prime Federer, JP is rational. Again JP claims every one of Djoko’s weapons is great but not the greatest in its category but put them together and we have something magical, something inexplicable which defines the mystery and greatness of Djoko (the invincible). If this not way over the top, I do not know what is.